Instead of writing a syllabus or creating assessments or working on lessons plans, I have procrastinated and scoured some images from the web to make these.

I have uploaded .png’s of these into this folder for downloading. The 8 math practices and SBG files were made to blow up to 18×24 (although the 8 math icons will be a little pixelated.) The Force and Darkside posters are pixelated when blown up that large, but will still look good!

As the end of each grading period nears, students begin to say, “Mr.P., what can I do to raise my grade? Can I do extra credit?” I always say no, but they still ask. This year with Standards Based Grading, I will be ready with the right answer. “What skills haven’t you mastered, and what can we do for you to understand it?” I can then point them to The Wall of Remediation, and tell them to a take a worksheet, look at their notes, look online, and see what they can do. Then let’s have a conversation about what you understand and what you don’t, and let’s learn this together.

As I finished up my first year of teaching middle school math, I found myself being frustrated as to how the traditional grading system did not measure what students learned, but what they accomplished on a given day. Having grades on participation or homework or behavior I felt took away from having the students actually learn and master a topic or standard. Close to the end of the year, I found Standards Based Grading, and I was hooked.